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Below are some tidbits on baseball and sportscard collecting.
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baseball, football, basketball, hockey, sports and
non-sport cards and card collecting.

Q5: What are some useful to know baseball card collecting terms ?

(part 1)Certificate Of Authenticity - a document that is used to verify the legitimacy of
a collectible. In reality, it is worthless, unless it shares a counterfeit-
proof serially-numbered hologram that is attached to the item, and the certificate
bears the signature of a notary public, or written verification by the manufacturer.

Common - any card which is not short-printed, an insert, a bonus card, or has an insertion
ratio. In short, the cards that comprise the manufacturer’s basic set.

Condition - the physical appearance of a card/collectible. Centering, corner wear,
photo clarity, edges, the presence of foreign material, signs of misuse are
the critical components. Along with rarity/scarcity, it is a major factor
in determining the value of a card or collectible.

Crease - an obvious paper wrinkle defect usually caused by bending the card [i.e.-
the result of being tortured on a rear-wheel bicycle spoke during the early ‘50s
and ‘60s].

Die-Cut - an insert/parallel card that differs from the basic card by a process of
the manufacturer "cutting" portions of the card revealing a special design.
Recent issues may also be individually and serially-numbered.

The issue below is featured elsewhere on this website:

1974 Topps DECKLE EDGE

This 72-card test issue set was released with a very limited distribution
on only the East Coast around Massachusetts making them quite scarce.
They were Officially simply called "Topps Baseball Photos"
but their serrated or "DECKLED" edge gave them the name they go by today.
The 2 7/8" x 5" inch cards were sold in either a 2 card pack
with gum or a 3 card pack with no gum for 5 cents.

The cards were meant to have the look
of the black and white movie star photos from the 1950's and feature a
black & white photo with a blue facsimilie autograph on the front.
The backs make this very scarce test issue even more interesting !
They feature handwritten script of the player's name, team, position & date
and location of the photograph as well as a mock newspaper article on the
player's career.

This was Topps 2nd "Deckle Edge" issue, their first being their smaller
and much more common 1969 Topps Deckle Edge which were inserts in
certain series of packs of 1969 Topps cards.

Variations of 1974 Topps Deckle Edge do exist,
making this issue even more fun and challenging to collect.
The backs can be found in either gray or a much scarcer white version.
Also, a more limited proof version with non-scalloped edges exists and
occasionally can be found.

1961 Topps Baseball Cards AUTOGRAPHED Set info/information

By now you all heard of the rash of counterfeit autographs on the market. The following autographs all come with auction house LOA's (Letters of Authenticity) from the top
authenticators in the hobby - PSA/DNA or James Spence !!!

1961 Topps was the first of the very popular and continuing Topps Rookie All-Star Trophies subsets.
Cards from the last series (#523-#589) are scarce "High Numbers" making the set fairly expensive to complete.

MLB Baseball expansion led to one of the least attractive aspects of the 1961 Topps baseball card set.
The American League made several changes. The Los Angeles Angels were added, the Washington Senators became
the Minnesota Twins and a new franchise was granted to the Washington Senators who also debuted in 1961.
Possibly because of these team changes, many players had their portrait photos taken without their baseball caps.
Not only did most of the players look awful without their caps, they looked more like your old,
not so handsome uncle then athletes!

Card backs were black print on an army green background on a dark card stock making them somewhat difficult to read.
TOP ROOKIES: #35 Ron Santo, #141 Billy Williams, #417 Juan Marichal, Willie Davis, Zoilo Versalles & Jim Maloney;
are popular players but still reasonably priced.

More interesting tid-bits from the 1961 Topps set:

Card #1 features All-American basketball player Dick Groat
Card #2 features Roger Maris, right prior to his record breaking 61 Home Run season
........Maris once ran back four kickoffs for touchdowns in a single game!
Mickey Mantle had 6 cards making the 1961 Topps set that much more costly.
#.44 American League Home Run Leaders
#300 Mickey Mantle's regular card
#307 Mickey Mantle 'Slams 2 Home Runs' World Series
#406 Mickey Mantle "Blasts 565 ft. HR"
#475 Mickey Mantle MVP card
#578 Mickey Mantle's scarce high # All-Star card
Other than the checklists, the set has no other variations.

Collectors of 1961 Topps cards may also want to take a look at 3 other baseball issues Topps
released that year: a Topps Dice Game, Topps Magic Rub-Offs and a series of Topps Stamps.

Although some dealers and collectors consider this set boring, with it's clean design, many special subsets
and multiple cards of some of the games top stars including 6 Mantle's I rate it much higher.
And, as I end most of my write-ups on vintage Topps sets, grab a glance at Don Mossi and those famous ears !